I must admit I've been enjoying the spat between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer, partly because it's funny and partly because Stewart is doing something that doesn't happen nearly enough in the media today. He's pointing out when so-called experts were dead wrong. There seems to be no penalty — no recognition, even — when what happens is precisely the opposite of what was predicted. Erroneous punditry is shrugged off, not just by those who make the bad calls but by their peers and even by the viewing public. I believe this is called The William Kristol Syndrome.

Some web comments are making a big deal about Cramer's support (or lack thereof, in some ways) to Barack Obama, saying that this is "The Left's" way of punishing him for straying a bit from the reservation. I don't think everything in this country has to be viewed through the prism of being for or against Obama. Certainly, folks on either side of that divide are quite capable of saying foolish things. Mr. Stewart and his crew may be Liberal on most issues but those like Joe Scarborough who think he doesn't ridicule Democrats and the new White House occupant haven't been watching the show. (I think some of them are foolishly expecting or hoping to encourage that Obama in his first fifty days be mocked as much as Bush was in his last fifty days.)

Cramer is scheduled to appear tomorrow night on The Daily Show. I imagine he'll cop to giving out some advice but insist that in later broadcasts, which Stewart did not cite, he course-corrected some or all of that. That may be so but it will affirm Stewart's point, which is that if one listens to CNBC, one hears a certain amount of financial advice which later proves to be inoperative. I hope he doesn't take to arguing, as he has in some recent responses, that Jon Stewart is not a financial expert. We already all know that. Stewart was just trying to point out that some of the folks on TV who are sold as financial experts aren't, either.

If you're interested in Raymond Chandler, you'll want to read this and this.

What's the worst gamble in Vegas? No, it's not Keno and it's not the Big Six Wheel. (The Big Six Wheel, which you don't see much of in the high-end casinos, is that gaming station where a lady spins a wheel, usually decorated with currency, and you lose whatever bet you were dumb enough to lay down. They put these on the floor in a location you must pass when you've won big and are on your way to the cashier to turn your chips into cash. Every so often, someone's so intoxicated by the "win" and/or alcohol that they decide to take a flyer on the wheel and in so doing, give back whatever they won. The odds on the Big Six Wheel are about the same as just throwing your money into an incinerator, though at least it's environmentally safer.)

Sorry…I got off subject. That happens around here.

Now then. The worst gamble in Vegas is a new deal they have for the buffet at the Excalibur Hotel. The buffet there is open from 7 AM until they feel like closing it (usually around 10 PM) and it costs $11.99 for breakfast, $14.99 for lunch, and $17.99 for dinner. But they're now offering something new, which is an "all-day buffet pass." You get to come and go, eating as much as you like each time for $25 a day. What's more, they give you a special ticket so you don't have to wait in line when there's a line. You can walk right in and start filling your plate, whenever you like, as many times as you like.

Even before I had Gastric Bypass Surgery, I never buffeted more than once a day in Vegas. No one needs or can tolerate that much mashed potato. Still, if you could buffet two or more times in a day, you can see where this might save you some bucks…though maybe not all that much. If one flips through the many magazines and coupon books one encounters in Vegas, one can usually find a "2 for 1" coupon for that buffet, good during off-hours…like 2 PM to 6 PM. So you and a companion could stuff yourselves for $7.50 each. Depending on when you want to eat, that might be a much better deal.

But of course, the problem with all these plays is that you'd be dining, if you can call it that, at the Excalibur Buffet. This is always a gamble of another variety…kind of like Russian Roulette with cubed Jell-O for dessert. Remember your high school cafeteria? Remember your high school cafeteria on a particularly bad day for your high school cafeteria? That's the Excalibur Roundtable Buffet on a good day. It's not quite as dreadful as the legendary Surf Buffet at the now-imploded and forgotten Boardwalk Casino, where you could look at and even sample an item without knowing whether it was beef, vegetable or tapioca pudding. There were people who eagerly chowed down on scorpion scrotums on Fear Factor but wouldn't go near the Surf Buffet.

The Excalibur spread isn't that bad but it's not somewhere you'd want to eat three meals in one day or one lifetime. Not unless your luck at the slots was running so terrible that you felt a powerful urge to do away with yourself. I did it once, back in my young and foolish days and they had a meat loaf that somehow contained neither meat nor loaf, as well as a gravy that could have served as a darned good transmission fluid. I ate what I could eat and as I was sitting there, wondering if I shouldn't stop somewhere for lunch on my way back to my room, a bus boy came by and snatched my plate. "Going back for more?" he asked.

"I think I've had enough," I said.

And then, so help me, he half-whispered, "Hey, you think this is bad, you should see the employee cafeteria."

March, as you no doubt have tattooed somewhere on your anatomy, is Creamy Tomato Soup Month at the chain of eateries known variously as Souplantation or Sweet Tomatoes. So busy have I been lately that I let the first eight days of the month slip by without tasting my favorite soup. Earlier this evening, I shrugged off all other concerns and hiked to my friendly neighborhood Souplantation where I was…a little disappointed. I hope we just got a bad batch because the Creamy Tomato Soup was not up to its usual standard. My former cleaning lady was eating there, too. She didn't seem particularly thrilled with the soup, either.

I'm going back for lunch on Thursday. I'm giving them one more chance…and probably one more after that.

This year's Comic-Con International takes place July 23-26. If you intend to buy a four-day membership, buy it now. They will all be gone long before July. They may even be gone by April Fool's Day.

The hotel reservation system opens March 19 at 9 AM Pacific Daylight Time.

Jon Stewart makes CNBC's Jim Cramer look like the biggest jerk in the history of financial news channels. And it's not like there haven't been plenty of other contenders for that honor lately. Video clip to follow.

The reason you haven't seen a review here of Watchmen — or for that matter of the recent Spirit movie — is that I haven't seen them.

This afternoon, Carolyn and I took our friends, Alice and Leonard Maltin, down to the La Mirada Theater for the Performing Arts to see Frank Ferrante being very Groucho about things. Frank (and his pianist, Jim Furmston) were in fine form and the audience vaulted to its collective feet at the end to cheer a very fine show.

Frank has notched thousands of performances as Groucho Marx on stages, and one of the many things I like about his show is the sheer beauty of watching a guy who's perfected what he does. Though much of the show is ad-lib, nothing throws him. You could probably waterboard the man and he wouldn't break character. He'd continue to nail Groucho with every move, every gesture, every line. I usually think "impersonators" go on too long. After a minute or so, you start seeing all the ways they don't look or sound like the person they're doing.

Not so with Ferrante. About three minutes in, some part of your brain surrenders. You just think, "Yeah, that's Groucho up there" and from then on, you just accept and enjoy. That may be because it isn't so much an impersonation as a performance by an actor who has made the Groucho style a part of himself. After the show, before we took pictures, I heard Frank tell someone that he's done this so long and immersed himself so totally in Groucho's life and times that he doesn't have to think hard about it. It just comes to him.

Leonard and Alice were impressed. So was Jerry Maren, who appeared with Groucho in At the Circus. (Remember the midget with the tiny dressing room? That was Jerry, fresh from his stint representing the Lollipop Guild in The Wizard of Oz.) And Groucho's daughter Miriam was there, telling people how much she loves how Frank spreads the good name and glory of her father. If you want to see Frank, check this page to see if and when he'll be wandering in your direction. I am not, despite how it may appear on this site, his agent.

Before I close, here's another photo someone took. It's my lovely friend Carolyn with me and Frank…

Carolyn's father was the great cartoonist, Walt Kelly. I got to thinking that if we were to extract some of her DNA and match it against Miriam's, we could do some genetic engineering and grow the wittiest human being who had ever lived. I'll have to try this when I get some time.

It's been more than six months since I posted one of these. I have to pay for a bunch of stuff I just bought off eBay. So if you've been thinking, "Gee, I have to make a donation to that wonderful weblog," now would be a grand time. Thank you.